Objects of Desire - Tapa blanda

'Beautifully written...with a plot like a nest of seething vipers' Andrew Taylor, author of The American Boy

'Taking this baby feels no different from any of the others. People move aside long before Jess reaches them. Who needs a bell? she thinks; they can see I'm unclean. The corridor from the delivery room seems endless as she walks towards the nurses congregated at their station. The chatter quietens as she passes by and their heads rotate, but they avoid eye contact. Everyone belongs, except her.' A new life in Wales has not turned out to be the rural fantasy that social worker Jess imagined when she left London. Having put the memories of her previous harrowing cases behind her, she had hoped to embark on a simpler, more fulfilling future, but it seems there's no escape from evil, even in such a beautiful landscape. Just as Jess takes on a new case, she learns that the body of a young boy has been found in the woods close to her home. Her worst nightmare becomes reality as she realises he was a child she was supposed to protect. As her professional life gets harder to deal with, Jess is forced to come to terms with her own past when someone unexpectedly reappears. She finds herself crossing the line from investigator to victim, forced to question the very basis of her identity, and she can only wonder: who's there to protect the protector?